Sanctuary of Monte Sant'Angelo

The Sanctuary of Saint Michael the Archangel (Italian: Santuario di San Michele Arcangelo) is a Roman Catholic shrine on Mount Gargano, Italy, part of the commune of Monte Sant'Angelo, in the province of Foggia, northern Apulia.

[1] It is the oldest shrine in Western Europe dedicated to the Archangel Michael and has been an important site of pilgrimage since the early Middle Ages.

The earliest account of the foundation of the Sanctuary is a composite Latin hagiographical text known as Liber de apparitione Sancti Michaelis in Monte Gargano (Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina 5948).

It was the object of monumental patronage of both the dukes of Benevento and the kings of Pavia, who promoted numerous renovations to facilitate access to the cave of the first apparition and to accommodate pilgrims.

The Sanctuary of St. Michael the Archangel thus became one of the main pilgrimage destinations of Christianity, a stop on that variant of the Via Francigena now called Via Sacra Langobardorum that led to Holy Land.

It is therefore possible that the alignment is a coincidence, favored by the high density of religious buildings that Europe presents and the importance of St. Michael in Christianity.

After the fall of the Lombard Kingdom in 774 the sanctuary retained its important function within the Langobardia Minor, still within the Duchy of Benevento which in that same year was raised, on the initiative of Arechi II, to the rank of principality.

The Castello was enlarged by the Normans upon an episcopal residence of Orso, Bishop of Benevento, to provide a suitable seat for the Honor Montis Sancti Angeli, further modified by Frederick II.

The archaic cavern opening to the left, with its holy well, is full of votive offerings, especially the 12th century marble bishop's throne supported on crouching lions.

Francis of Assisi also visited the Sanctuary, but, feeling unworthy to enter the grotto, stopped in prayer and meditation at the entrance, kissed a stone, and carved on it the sign of the cross in the form “T” (tau).